Where do you get your food from?

In July, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) released a report titled Food from somewhere: Building food security and resilience through territorial markets. The lengthy 90-page report highlights how, in the face of major cracks in global commodity markets and corporate-controlled supply chains over the past few years, most people around the world have relied on shorter, close-to-home food webs and markets for their food needs, from public markets and street vendors to cooperatives and community kitchens.

The report brings much evidence to show how these shorter food webs and markets, which IPES calls “territorial markets", are key in ensuring food and nutrition access, including to lower income communities, and are more resilient and adaptable to shocks-- both for food producers and for urban and rural consumers. For example, Thailand's "green farmers’ markets" offer farmers and other small food producers’ higher margins than big retailers and provide them with 60-80% of their total income. In Bangladesh, the 400 public markets in the city of Dhaka feed 25 million people every day.

Despite their critical contributions to national economies and to people's access to food, these "territorial markets" are often ignored or discriminated against by governments through unfavourable policies and the absence of much needed basic services like clean water and sanitation facilities. The result is that many of these markets are being displaced to make way for corporations.

IPES calls for a linking-up of actions that can curb the power of corporate food chains and bring food distribution and markets closer to home, so as to turn the tide on failing food system policies. Their proposed actions include:

As we’ve seen in many examples highlighted in the previous issues of this bulletin, local or territorial markets are far more resilient than the corporate models. They are rooted in communities, landscapes, and cultures. Echoing IPES’s report, we are convinced that creating a shorter circuit of food distribution is the way forward. Local and territorial markets are not only essential for overcoming the current predicament, but they also play a crucial role in empowering diverse networks of people to achieve food sovereignty.

Read the full report here:

Photo: Bustling market scene (StockCake)

On the outskirts of Metro Manila lies a fertile expanse of wide plains, rolling hills and lush greenery. Its rich soil is suitable for different crops, including palay (rice), and is perfect for raising livestock and poultry. San Jose Del Monte in Bulacan shares a border with Caloocan City and is surrounded by the province of Rizal and other Bulacan municipalities of Marilao, Santa Maria, and Norzagaray.

San Jose Del Monte hosts some of the largest resettlement areas in the Philippines, and is also home to rural migrants who arrived decades ago to work, farm, and settle in the area. Barangays (villages) like Tungkong Mangga, San Roque, and Paradise III are known for farming and have become vital sources of agricultural products for Metro Manila residents. These communities have established their residence, economy, and self-sustaining organisations over the years.

But trouble would always come to this seeming paradise. State forces and private goons have constantly harassed and intimidated the farmers. They repeatedly destroy the crops, demolish the farmers’ houses, block the entry of construction materials, survey and threaten leaders, and physically assault and even kill those who resist.

The most recent of these attacks is the illegal search and entry into the old and unoccupied house of Ronnie Manalo, secretary-general of the Philippines peasant’s organisation, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP - Peasant Movement of the Philippines). On the same day, the soldiers searched the area for Cecilia Rapiz, leader of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan (AMB - Peasant Alliance in Bulacan) and a prominent producer-seller of the Bagsakan Farmers Market, which sells directly at agroecology fairs and bazaars in Metro Manila. They are both labelled as wanted criminals for supporting the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

But these accusations seem to be nothing more than a smokescreen. What could possibly motivate state forces and agents to commit such egregious acts and human rights violations, and to do so with such impunity?

San Jose Del Monte (SJDM) is the first city in the province of Bulacan. Its proximity to Metro Manila has made it a target for the expansion of real estate development and other businesses. There has been rapid development of private housing and commercial establishments, like the SM mall that has been conveniently built near the MRT station. Banks, food chains, malls, and resorts have mushroomed in the city. Real estate development is among the industries that have significantly grown in SJDM, with a recorded number of 44 developers operating in the city, including corporations owned by the country’s economic oligarchs – the Sys, the Ayalas, the Villars, and the Aranetas.

The government is instrumental in securing the oligarchs’ profit agenda. On the other hand, the Villars, the Aranetas, and the country’s oligarchs are hugely influential in the country’s politics and in building regimes. They have used their economic and political clout in massive, illegal, and often violent land grabbing and relentless attacks on farmers.

But the farmers of San Jose Del Monte have fought on. They have creatively devised their forms of struggle through Bungkalan and Bagsakan efforts. Bungkalan is collective and cooperative land cultivation that minimizes production costs, while Bagsakan is a direct marketing to consumers that skirts unfair pricing by middle buyers. Harvests are not always plentiful, especially due to constant harassment by the military and the goons, but the farmers have instilled in their communities the importance of attaining food security.

During the pandemic, the farmers of San Jose Del Monte were crucial in delivering vegetables to the community pantries that were set up by concerned citizens when the Duterte government was defaulting on a decent response to the pandemic. Yet, even that humanitarian act by the farmers was criminalised by the military.

No state is in its right mind when it denies free land distribution to farmers who have made the land productive for decades. A genuine agrarian reform is the farmers and peasants’ unrelenting struggle, to their last breath. It should be one of the Filipino people’s foremost struggles, for it is the foundation of genuine national development. The death of any farmer should never be in vain.

On July 23, 2024, an Inter-ministerial Coordinating Committee led by Dr. H.E. Aun Pornmoniroth, Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister, finalised a Master Plan to turn Cambodia's coastal provinces into a "Multi-Purpose and Comprehensive Economic Corridor". Supported by China’s Urban Planning and Design Institute of Shenzhen (UPDIS), the plan aims to transform Preah Sihanouk Province into a Special Economic Zone and integrate it into a regional trade network by 2028.

Situated in southwestern Cambodia, Sihanoukville is the capital of Preah Sihanouk and is named after King Sihanouk, the former head of state. Until recently, the town primarily attracted Western backpackers. The street vendors offered a great array of local street food delicacies, including oysters, fried noodles, porridge, Khmer noodles, papaya salad, the famous pong tia cun (fertilised duck egg) and pong muan ang (Khmer-style grilled egg). To sell Khmer BBQ, vendors set up on the beach with their carts and laid down tables. They sourced vegetables and seafood from local small farmers and fishermen to make affordable and popular street food that defines the city's foodscape.

But Preah Sihanouk is part of China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to boost international trade and promote infrastructural development, and it is being transformed through substantial Chinese investment into an enclave of Chinese-run casinos, restaurants, high-rise office buildings and a seemingly endless slew of Chinese-funded construction projects.

The corresponding influx of Chinese nationals has upended the economic and social fabric of the local communities, causing rents and land prices to triple or quadruple. Faced with the exorbitant costs, most Cambodian-owned small businesses have gone bankrupt or fled the province in search of better prospects. It is estimated that 80-90% of Sihanoukville businesses are currently owned by Chinese nationals.

Mr Kheang, a Chinese descendant taxi driver from a travel tour service, said that the Sihanoukville tourism sector used to cater to tourists eager to immerse themselves in local culture. In contrast, the Chinese inhabitants intend to spend their lives in a Chinese bubble. All services and goods consumed are sourced from China or Chinese-owned companies.

Vorn Pao, president of the Independent Democratic Informal Economy Association (IDEA), stated that Khmer food vendors are being forced to leave popular tourist spots such as Ekareach and Ochheuteal Beach and relocate to remote scenic areas such as Otres Beach, where they lose a major part of their business and social connections.

The majority are families who depend on the sale of food and drinks to make ends meet. Like many other districts of the city, Chinese restaurants have taken over and are selling high-end Chinese cuisine. More food trading companies have been established to import vegetables from China and supply them to Chinese restaurants, gradually dominating the grocery sector. Both local farmers and groceries have been driven to the brink.

“As a means to protect employment for locals, the Cambodian government initially banned foreigners from taking up local jobs such as driving taxis and tuk-tuks, or working as street food vendors and product distributors. The ban was lifted after three months due to pressure from Chinese authorities,” Pao added. The shifts in demographics and tourism have led to reduced revenue for vendors and spiking commodities prices, pushing many vendors into debt to maintain their businesses.

As Preah Sihanouk becomes a pawn in China’s grand trade strategy, the future of local communities hangs in the balance. Chinese-led corporations seem to have gotten a blank check, jeopardising local people’s access to food and livelihoods. If the current trends continue, the damage inflicted by the Master Plan on Sihanoukville’s networks of small farmers, street vendors and local inhabitants could become irreversible.

The online magazine Hammer & Hope convened a group of Haitian women activists to discuss how the current political crisis and insecurity in the country are affecting their everyday lives. One issue they highlighted was the impact on local markets, which are predominantly run by women. Below is a summary of insights shared by two of the women interviewed.

Sabine Lamour (feminist activist): When you attack the marketplace, you attack the soul of the community. We are realizing, that it is all the spaces where women are thriving: where women are making deals and organizing sòl [a group money-saving method], where women exchange and forge new connections with each other, where women are gathering donations for people in need. These are the spaces that the armed groups are directly targeting.... Everywhere we go, women are doing the same work regardless of the space. We take care of people. We take care of the collective. The Madan Sara [women who purchase produce from rural farms and sell it in larger regional marketplaces] take care of the child with no family, just like the woman inside the church does for the children around her. The food vendor on the street knows to leave a plate of food for the mentally ill person who is always on the block. She also knows that in the pot of food she’s cooked for the day, there is a plate of food for her neighbour and her children, who have been without food since morning.

Islanda Micherline Aduel (member of the national peasant organisation Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen): Despite everything, there is still an extraordinary capacity for resistance. Despite being chased out of major market spaces, these women head uptown to Petyonvil; they go up to Dèlma. There are parts of the city where cars cannot pass right now because the vendors who were chased out of the Salomon marketplace have taken up business there. Because these women want to live, you will see them in the street with baskets on their heads. They tell you there is hope and they can build an alternative.

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Small retailers try to keep trading in bombed-out wastelands. Ramy al-Mutawaq was immensely proud of his well-stocked grocery shop in Jabalia in northern Gaza. Before the war, whenever he felt unhappy, he could lift his spirits by simply sweeping his eyes around its shelves stacked with merchandise. Now, like many other grocers and supermarkets in the bombed-out wastelands of northern Gaza, Mutawaq's shop is seldom open. There is nearly nothing to sell - and after war laid waste to the strip and its economy, even tinned peas or beans are too expensive for most people. Starvation is setting in, and Mutawaq's ample stocks are just a memory.

Just over a fifth of Gaza's population, or about half a million people, face the most severe, "catastrophic" level of hunger, in which "starvation, death, destitution and extremely acute malnutrition levels are evident", according to an assessment in July by an international hunger-monitoring mechanism.

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New Zealand currently has just three major supermarket entities: two Foodstuffs cooperatives (member-owned companies) and Australian-owned Woolworths. These three control 85% of the grocery market and almost 100% of the supermarket sector. Now a proposed merger of Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island raises the prospect of even less choice for New Zealanders in what is an already heavily concentrated market. New Zealand is not the only country facing an increasingly concentrated supermarket sector, though it is, arguably, one of the worst.

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In the past 30 years, two-thirds of the UK's independent fruit and vegetable shops have closed. Greengrocers have been mainly supplanted by fast food restaurants and stores offering ultra-processed foods. The absence of greengrocers has resulted in 'fruit and vegetable deserts' across the country. Evidence suggests that nine out of 10 youngsters and three quarters of adults in the country do not have access to adequate fresh food.

But there's a growing number of local food strategies and community food actions that could rebuild the greengrocers' systems in order to resist fruit and vegetable sales based solely on capitalism and restore the understanding of the social and health benefits of having access to fresh vegetables.

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